Teaching manual handling through risk assessment empowers the nursing team to provide safe mobility-related care: A qualitative analysis

Introduction: Mobilisation of hospital patients is important for their functioning, and nurses play an important role in providing assistance. Manual handling training programs aim to help nurses to move patients safely, but most do not include dynamic risk assessment. We aimed to explore the experiences of members of the nursing team working in inpatient wards in a private hospital who participated in the manual handling training program Risk Assessment for moving Individuals SafEly (RAISE). Methods: Members of the nursing team who attended a 4-hour dynamic risk assessment training program led by physiotherapists participated in one of two focus groups guided by semi-structured questions 4 months post training. Focus groups were facilitated by an experienced qualitative researcher (physiotherapist). Results: Three themes emerged: (1) empowerment, (2) role and (3) implementation. The training session improved the nurses’ confidence and empowerment to employ a risk assessment model for mobility-related care, which was central to their role. Organisational factors, including cluttered environments, equipment and staffing challenges, were identified as the key barriers to implementation. Conclusion: Risk assessment manual handling training was perceived to improve confidence and empower the nursing team to provide safe mobility-related care. It is recommended that training sessions be relatively short; provide refresher training and consistent access to training within departments across the target health service; and take into consideration organisational factors that may affect implementation.